Bags have been utilized for packaging store-bought goods for many years. When paper bags are utilized, they are easily separated from one another for use as needed. When plastic bags are preferred, they are packaged in flattened stacks or are sold as perforated sheets rolled about a core.
Regardless of the type or design of the bags used, the bags themselves are costly, so it is preferable to the storeowner that each customer take only as many bags as needed to carry his or her purchases. In particular, at present many customers take home a number of empty plastic bags for a variety of personal uses, in addition to those needed to wrap the customer's purchases. Furthermore, since plastic bags do not degrade, the billions and billions of plastic bags thrown away today are clogging up the land, the drains, the rivers, and the seas, and creating a severe, world-wide environmental problem. In order to solve this problem, some countries, like Ireland, have begun collecting taxes for each plastic bag taken from stores. In other areas, stores have begun charging customers for the bags they use or take away. Yet another solution is biodegradable plastic bags, although these are expensive to produce and have so far proved unsatisfactory in use.
Furthermore, since the bags are generally of plastic film, it is often difficult to open them. They usually must be crumpled or one side rubbed against the other, in order to open them. These actions take time, especially when they are required with each and every bag, thus slowing down the traffic of shoppers at the check out counters.
In order to solve the problem of customers' excessive use and consumption of plastic bags for a variety of personal uses other than just for carrying their purchases, a dispensing machine which dispenses automatically one bag at a time was disclosed in patent application No. PCT/IL03/01114 which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and which is incorporated by reference herein. This machine is located adjacent the cash register and includes a plate having a frame, a rotatable shaft coupled to the frame, at least one roller non-rotatably affixed to the shaft and arranged to engage a bag of the stack of bags, means for rotating the shaft, and means for automatically stopping rotation of the shaft after a single bag has been dispensed, wherein the stack of bags is held against one side of the plate, and the single bag is dispensed to an opposite side of the plate. After the bag is detached from the stack of bags, it falls within the housing to a dispensing area. Although this machine addresses the problem of customers taking more bags than they need for carrying the purchases, still it does not try to solve the problem of opening the bag for fast packaging of the purchased products. It also requires that the device be disposed on a counter past the cashier, taking up space which would otherwise be available for purchases.
Accordingly, there is a long felt need for a bag dispensing device which dispenses only one bag at a time and includes a control unit for controlling the number and rate of bags dispensed and, it would be very desirable to have such a device wherein the dispensed bags are easily opened and ready for use by the customers, which device preferably could be disposed under the counter during use.